Scuderia Italia had been a solid little midfield team for a number of years thanks to them running Dallara chassis, and having some good talent in the car (JJ Lehto finished 3rd for them at the 1991 San Marino GP). Unfortunately, at the end of '92, Dallara departed and Lola came in. All seemed well on paper, with two capable drivers and a solid chassis, they hoped to do well. Shame the car turned out to be a complete dog really, so much so that the team decided to merge their operation with Minardi for 1994.

I admire in a way what Super Aguri tried to do, which was provide a platform for Japanese drivers. What was not so admirable was that they were rubbish. Why on earth they let Sakon Yamamoto within 12 miles of an F1 car is to this day a mystery to me.

Don't think there has been absolutely terrible cars in my years of watching F1 (since 2009) bar the McLaren MP4-30, which as we all saw was a terrible package.

One of the funniest (in a sad way) was the VR01 though, I recall that during designing the car (which they did completely in CFD) they actually didn't even leave enough room for a big enough fuel tank meaning for the first few races (I presume they rectified it at some point in 2010) they had to run the engine on the lowest power mode to try and make the chequered flag, massive error on someone's behalf!

on the note of Super Aguri, Franck Montagny is currently banned from racing after testing positive for cocaine. Cocaine is basically undetectable in urine after like two days, so odds are he probably took it the day of his test.

Mastercard Lola T97/30. Car was wank, never qualified for a single race.

McLaren MP4-30. Let's be honest, this is the worst F1 car ever made. Worse than the Life L190, which was clearly dreamt up by a man who didn't know the first thing about F1 and didn't have the money to make up for it. worse than the Andrea Moda S921, which was headed by a shoe maker who didn't pony up. Worse than the Mastercard Lola T97/30, which didn't have a wind tunnel to test in. And yes, even worse than the Manor Marussia MR03B, which was the only car the MP4-30 could consistently beat. Why? Because the MR03 was a 2014 car that a team with no money and two paydrivers managed to somehow drag heroically to within 107% on a week to week basis. In 2015. Even in spite of the turmoil at the top with Booth and Lowdon's departure. In spite of the first driver death since Senna. The MP4-30 is the failed abortion resulting from the union of the third most successful team in the sport's history and the eighth biggest car manufacturer on the planet. Driven by two world champions, one of whom you could make a solid argument for "greatest of all time". (Spoilers: it's Fernando.) And what happened? We got the MP4-30. The gooseberry fool MP4-30. I'm angry just thinking about it. You know the rest.

Oh who am I kidding, they will most likely be back of the grid, since Manor will be running the Merc engine next season and Honda are probably already contemplating running away. Such a waste of Alonso.

TrubbishForMayor wrote:
I admire in a way what Super Aguri tried to do, which was provide a platform for Japanese drivers. What was not so admirable was that they were rubbish. Why on earth they let Sakon Yamamoto within 12 miles of an F1 car is to this day a mystery to me.

The car pictured here though, is the one that Takuma Sato used to blast past Alonso's 2007 McLaren at the Canadian GP to secure 6th place, it was the 2006 Honda and was quite often, more competitive than the factory effort.

ミドリ wrote:
Mastercard Lola T97/30. Car was wank, never qualified for a single race.

Not long after the team closed, a bunch of their kit was put up for sale in a store called GrandPrixTopGear, it was from there where i purchased one of their team caps, i still have it in the cupboard (blue with Mastercard on the front, and Lola's logo on the side).